Guests Picked Dessert Right Off The Walls At Performa's Red Party

All photographs by Gerry Visco

By all accounts, the Red Party by Performa on Saturday was one of those Only-In-New-York-Once-In-A-Blue-Moon, epic, legendary parties. For example, even the dessert,  (walls made entirely of cotton candy), was an installation piece (by artist Jennifer Rubell) ....-

Guests were instructed to arrive to the party wearing all red, and for those that didn't comply, stylists were on hand to add red to any outfit in need of a little oomph. Every item on the dinner menu was red, from the wine to the meat to the red cotton candy. A marching band was on hand for entertainment, and Alan Cumming MC'd the event.  We can't wait to see what RoseLee Goldberg and the Performa crew will think of next...

Alan Cumming, Andrew and Andrew

The Red Party featured décor inspired by the Russian Constructivists of the 1920s, including a remarkable set and banners commissioned by Performa, and handmade by artists Kyle Goen and Zach Rockhill. Upper-level ticket-holders were treated to cocktails, performances, and a seated dinner beginning at 7pm. Catered by BITE, cocktails and dinner featured creative ingredients with an interactive presentation format. Dessert was a new creation titled Padded Cell, by food artist Jennifer Rubell. The installation consisted of an 8 x 16 foot freestanding room, with a single door containing a Plexiglas window. Inside, the walls and ceiling were padded with pink cotton candy and guests were invited inside to eat the cotton candy off the very walls themselves.

At 9pm, The Red Party began with dessert, performances, and dancing with music by DJ Tikka Masala followed by DJ Pierce Jackson. A photo booth station was set up for guests to have their pictures taken with handmade hats by Erik Bergrin. There were also special performances by Chica Vas and Sexual Energies School: Leningrad, featuring Zach Layton, Nick Hallett, Brian Chase, and Mike Skinner, as well as a performance by Victor Longo with DJ Tikka Masala.

During the event, Performa hosted a silent auction of Performa Editions and Ephemera by artists including Laurie Simmons, Brody Condon, Sanford Biggers, Japanther, Aida Ruilova, Isaac Julien, Jesper Just, Adam Pendleton, as well as Kelly Nipper, Robert Wilson, Daria Martin, Gelitin, Serkan Ozkaya, and Melik Ohanian.

More info can be found here: [Ashley Simko]

Those in attendance included Master of Ceremonies Alan Cumming, Honoree Shirin Neshat, actress Barbara Sukowa, choreographer Yvonne Rainer, and artist Jennifer Rubell, as well as honorary co-chairs Cindy Sherman, Toby Devan Lewis, and Maria Baibakova.

Major art world figures in attendance included Performa Chairman Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, Performa Director RoseLee Goldberg and Dakota Jackson, Anne Hathaway, Andrew Andrew, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Siddhartha Shukla, Amy Cappellazo, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Jens Hoffmann, Jennifer McSweeney, Haider Ackermann, Dominique Levy and Dorothy Berwin, Brian Phillips, Celerie Kembel and Boykin Curry, Marc Spiegler, Lisa Dennision, Tatiana Broushlinsky, Monica Eulitz, Suzanne Geiss, Grant Shaffer, Caroline Hansberry and David Remfry.

As well as Annie Ohayon, Nadine Peyser, Julie Thorton, Michelle Stein, David Raymond, Jeremy E. Steinke, Kai Kuhne, Emma Hall, Beth Swofford, James Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach, Lisa Silver and Jean-Christophe Castelli, Alex Gorlin, Heidi Banks, David Teiger, Elizabeth Dee, Sara Fitzmaurice and Perry Rubinstein, among others.

Artists in attendance included Vanessa Beecroft, Sanford Biggers, Phong Bui, Jules De Balincourt, Carroll Dunham, Simon Fujiwara, Kyle Goen, Pierre Huyghe, Joan Jonas, Jesper Just, Jon Kessler, Ragnar Kjartansson, Kalup Linzy, Robert Longo, as well as Julie Mehretu, Wangechi Mutu, Lorraine O’Grady, Adam Pendleton, Giuseppe Penone, Zach Rockhill, Carolee Schneemann, Laurie Simmons, and Lorna Simpson, among others.